To Be a Father
by Blonde Panther
Summary: Post-FE7. Eliwood does not feel comfortable at all when his son is born; first he fears the delivery may take his wife from him, and when he sees the child and realises he now has to be a father, he worries that he has no idea how one goes about this entire 'parent' thing.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Fire Emblem, Eliwood, Ninian, or Roy. Property of Nintendo and Intelligent Systems.**  
Characters:** Eliwood, Ninian, Roy.  
**Pairings:** Eliwood/Ninian.  
**Warnings:** Spoilers for FE7 if you haven't cleared it, but that should honestly be expected by now.  
_**Author's Notes:**__ Insert my rage over not being able to come up with TITLES here. I'm finding that while I have a hard time coming up with prompts for Eliwood/Roy family fics, actually writing them is not as hard and I really enjoy it. Although I suppose that with some tweaks here and there, this could have applied to Hector and Lilina just as well. I have a few slightly more Pherae-specific things in mind for later and will work those out ASAP. Until then, you're stuck with this._

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When Ninian's screams finally stopped, Eliwood looked up at the clock on the wall in the hallway. It was the middle of the night… Her labour had taken well over ten hours. Five hours in, the pained expression on her face and the concerned ones on those of the midwives had driven him to near insanity, and before his panic could spread to his wife, Marcus had been summoned to drag him out of the room.

A few servant girls hurried out of the room with a basket full of what appeared to be bloody sheets, rekindling his concern. Was she alright? Had her screams stopped because she'd successfully delivered his child, or… He got up, drawing Marcus' attention, and the paladin could only just reach out to grab his liege's arm, physically restraining him and keeping him from running back into his own bedchambers as fast as his legs could carry him. He did not let go even as Eliwood calmed down, and accompanied the redhead as he nervously entered the room to see his wife and the child she had borne him.

Eliwood broke from Marcus' grip as soon as he saw Ninian, covered in fresh, pristine sheets and looking exhausted, but very much alive. He walked over to her, supporting himself on the mattress with one hand as he leaned over her to put his other hand on her face. She was cold to the touch- she always was. It had initially unsettled Eliwood, but when he had learnt about her heritage he had accepted it as part of her, and now the chilly temperature of her skin soothed him. She was fast asleep, drained from the delivery, but she breathed easily and Eliwood felt her heart beating against his fingertips when he touched her neck. "I'm sorry," he muttered to her as he kissed her forehead. "I should've stayed."

He was ashamed of having panicked before. What kind of knight- what kind of husband left his wife to struggle through the kind of pain she had experienced, alone? The thought of possibly losing her had been too much for him to bear, but now that he saw her perfectly fine it seemed unthinkable that she had ever worried him. He turned around, looking around the room. There was nothing in bed with her, and for a brief moment a fresh wave of fear washed over him- until he caught sight of Marcus gesturing him over to a crib at the end of the bed. In his rush to ensure the safety of his wife, he had not registered its existence.

His heart beat faster with every step he took towards the crib, but by the time he reached it he had gathered the courage to look inside it. In it, he saw a small boy, fully awake and looking up at him with bright blue eyes. He reached up towards Eliwood with a tiny hand, cooing quietly in an attempt to get attention. Eliwood found himself reaching into the crib with one hand, letting the little boy grab onto his finger and remarking mentally on how small he was. It then hit him in full that the boy grabbing onto him was his son. His _child._

Five years of marriage. Five years of trying. For five years, he and Ninian had worried that her dragon blood had affected her ability to have children with him, a human. For the last year of that, Ninian had repeatedly begged him to take a mistress so at least he could have an heir. After refusing to entertain the thought several times, he had eventually asked she never bring it up again. Instead, he had started to consider adoption, but days after that thought entered his mind, the news had come that at long last, his wife was expecting their first child.

And the result now lay in front of him. The fruit of five years of increasingly desperately trying for a child was… this small, blue-eyed boy. Eliwood retracted his hand when the child tried to stuff his finger into his mouth- he hadn't washed his hands since leaving the room and didn't want to take any risks. He couldn't tear his gaze from the child, though, even as he heard the door closing and knew Marcus and the midwife had left the room.

When he had learnt of Ninian's pregnancy, he had been ecstatic. The prospect of having a child that was not only his own, but hers as well had brought him a kind of joy he hadn't felt since Ninian had confessed she loved him as well. However, seeing the child instead filled him with a calm sort of bliss. Everything was fine now. Ninian had survived childbirth, and the child himself struck him as healthy and cheerful. The storm of criticism that she'd had to endure for being a foreign commoner would still now, too. His peers would no longer find fault with her now that she'd given him a male heir.

However, a strange feeling crept up on Eliwood. Something he recognised; he had felt it similarly just before his ceremony of ascension. Anxiety. This was entirely new to him. He had no idea how to raise a child, and didn't know who to turn to for advice or help; his own father had died five years ago, and as for Ninian's? Ninian's parents had been dead for centuries. The only person he could think of was his mother. And he had already turned to her to help him keep up with his duties as Pherae's ruler; how had Lord Elbert been a marquess, a husband, and a father all at the same time?!

He jolted when he felt a pair of hands on his tensed back and turned, seeing Ninian behind him. She'd woken up and walked up to him while he'd been lost in thought, and now softly rubbed his back. "Is he alright?" she asked quietly, "I must have fallen asleep before I could see him well..."

"He looks okay to me," Eliwood said, turning to put an arm around her and hold her against him. "You did great, Ninian. He's beautiful." His free hand was still on the edge of the crib, and he noted how tightly he'd grabbed on to it. Ninian must have noticed as well, as she put her hand over his. She didn't have to ask what the matter was- he knew he had her attention. "...the gods didn't put enough hours into a day. I don't know how I'm going to raise him _while_ doing my job as marquess. I don't even know how to raise him at all."

"That's okay," Ninian said, squeezing his hand. "You don't have to figure it out alone. I'm here as well. I'll help." She gently pried his hand from the wood, caressing it. "You didn't know about being a leader either, and you're doing wonderfully now."

"Father had prepared me," Eliwood protested. "I knew the theory behind my duties; I just needed to practice applying it. But no one's ever told me how to do this 'father' thing. I don't even know where to begin."

Ninian seemed to hesitate, but then took his face in both her hands and forced him to look at her. "Hey... please don't worry about it. You're a good man. You'll be a good father, too." Something about the look in her red eyes was assuring, and he took her hands off his face so he could kiss them. He wondered at her sudden certainty.

Her brother, Nils, had called her an 'oracle of sorts' and possessed the gift of foresight, himself. Maybe Ninian saw things Eliwood didn't; all of the siblings' other powers had been identical between the two, as well. "Do you think that?" he asked, looking down at her calm and reassured. "Or do you _know_?"

She only smiled at him mysteriously, not responding except by leaning in to kiss him. "As for where to start," she then said as if he'd never asked the question, "Our boy needs a name."

"Elroy," he immediately said, causing her to blink in surprise. Eliwood had spoken with the tactician, Mark, five years earlier, giving the brown-haired mysterious traveller the responsibility of naming his first heir. Mark had given him two names; Elena for a girl or Elroy for a boy.

She regained her mental balance quickly, smiling. "I do like Roy," she said. Relieved that this, at least, had been so easy, Eliwood embraced her tightly. Honestly, whether or not she had the foresight to _know_ what kind of father he would turn out to be mattered little. As she had said, he wasn't alone. And if the mother of his son had faith in him... then who was he to challenge her?


End file.
